312Chapter 16
Elizabeth stared blankly at the cement ceiling, focusing on blocking out the demon still standing next to the table. Her body was numb from the cold air biting at her skin. Jesse had taken the liberty to strip her bare, and she was paying for it.
Her fingers had turned numb long before, and her arms and legs seemed unnaturally heavy to her. Jesse would randomly lay his hands along her body: her chest, thighs, pelvis, and especially her neck. Elizabeth always held her breath when the insane demon would trace the bite marks Alik had left upon her skin. The look on Jesse's face when he did that couldn't even be described.
It was horrifying, and his touch was absolutely disgusting.
Whenever he'd move his hand, he'd make sure to trail his fingers along her skin, never breaking contact. He'd lay his palm flat against Elizabeth's chest and smile perversely, taking sickening pleasure in her futile attempts to lift her arms to push him away. Whenever she'd move, he'd laugh cruelly and touch her more firmly: running his hands along her sides, squeezing her hips and thighs.
Elizabeth didn't last long under his attention before she started to wonder if Alik would even want anything to do with her after Jesse was done.
Will he even be able to find me? she asked herself, forcing herself not to concentrate on where Jesse's hands were.
She didn't know what it would feel like when he forced her to find pleasure in his touch and every second spent waiting was pure torture. She'd prepared herself for whatever he was planning to throw at her the second he'd mentioned his ability, but all he had done after was touch her.
Maybe he couldn't do it to her?
She prayed that was true, but didn't have much hope.
"We have all night, darling. The fun is just starting," Jesse whispered against her ear before lowering his head and sucking the skin just above Alik's bite mark. His teeth nipped gently at her skin when he wasn't using his tongue and Elizabeth was shocked at how... good it felt.
Her stomach, which had been clenched in fear, gradually relaxed. Jesse smirked against her neck and rubbed a hand against the inside of her thighs until Elizabeth spread her legs.
"Perfect," he mumbled with a groan, his fingers digging into her muscles.
Elizabeth's mouth dropped open in a pleasured gasp. He felt so good and she wanted more.
Just as his hand was going to touch her core, someone shouted for Jesse just outside of the room. The demon pulled back with a growl and just as quickly, the daze that had fallen over Elizabeth's mind faded.
Jesse yelled something back, but Elizabeth didn't focus on him, she was too disgusted with how easily she had fallen under his spell.
There was another annoyed growl and then Jesse was looking back at her, his eyes narrowed in anger. "We'll have to do this after he's done with you," the man said with a jerk of his head towards the door just as it was pushed open. "You'll need what I have to offer, I'm sure."
"Ah, you seem to be doing surprisingly well," Doc's familiar voice said before a chilling laughter filtered through the darkness of the room. Jesse shared a few words with the man before walking out of the room, the door shutting behind him loudly.
Elizabeth lifted her head as much as she could, her eyes darting around her to find the demon she knew was lurking in the shadows. "Doc, please..." Her voice cracked from her dry throat and a moment later she was fighting back coughs. It had been hours since her last drink and she doubted Jesse would feel any sort of sympathy towards her.
Doc laughed again in response to her plea, and she knew then that he wasn't there to help. She heard Doc shuffle towards her just before his body came into view as he flicked on the tall lamp next to the table Elizabeth was lying on. She held back a yelp at the sight of him so close. He was leaning over her, holding his face only a few inches above her own.
"I've always found it interesting," he whispered as his eyes danced across her face, "how humans react to certain situations. How, in a time of sadness, some of them cave in on themselves, but some others are willing to reach out to friends and family for comfort." He smiled then, that creepy smile of his that practically screamed, I know something that you don't know.
Elizabeth shuddered and almost wished that he'd look away from her eyes. He was letting his thoughts dance plainly across his face and she was sure she'd be better off not knowing how his crazy mind worked.
"I also find it absolutely fascinating that, even when someone's sibling swears on their life that they saw something from a nightmare, a person can't believe them."
She closed her eyes as Aubrey's annoyed face came to mind. The younger girl hadn't ever believed a word Elizabeth had said about creatures with long teeth and glowing eyes.
"I have a secret, Miss Elizabeth," Doc said as he drew back, looking down his nose at the woman still lying immobile on the table. His eyes strayed for a moment down her bare body, but surprisingly he didn't seem too interested in what was on display. He brought his gaze back to Elizabeth's quickly and grasped her chin with his hand, squeezing her jaw painfully tight. "Do you want to know what it is?"
She whimpered because... no, she really didn't want to know.
"Ten years ago, I sent out three demons to kill a man and a woman so that I could see how their children would handle their sudden death." He smirked as he released her chin, giving her cheek a couple pats before stepping away from the table and laughing. He looked like he was having the time of his life standing there. "I'd already done something of this nature before, so I had to think of some way to change things up a bit and dear Jesse thought of the perfect situation."
Elizabeth closed her eyes, knowing what he was going to say next.
"He suggested that I somehow turn the siblings against each other. How would they react when they had to handle the grief alone?" He paused, looking at Elizabeth closely to make sure she really knew what he was admitting to. "You two lived through your lives far easier than I had expected you to. I had thought that you, after watching your parents get mutilated, would be horribly affected. I didn't think you'd even be able to walk out of the house in fear of something jumping from the shadows and doing the same to you."
Refusing to admit that he was right, Elizabeth glared at him in the eyes, trying to show just how strong she turned out to be.
"Your relationship with your sister didn't turn out as I had hoped, either. You two had your differences, you argued, but somehow you were able to look past that," he said tightly, as if he was seriously angry that his experiment didn't turn out the way he had planned. "I had wanted you two to be alone in your fight to survive, but neither of you gave up hope. It was completely disappointing."
Doc crossed his arms and took a deep breath, calming himself down for the moment. "But I have another idea," he said excitedly. "Since it seems your relationship with your sister can't be broken, what would she do if it was your life that was taken?"
Elizabeth eyes widened. Even though she had a feeling that Doc was going to threaten her, hearing him speak of murder scared her like nothing else ever had.
Doc laughed at her panicked expression. "Yes, that sounds like the perfect idea." He stepped back up to the table and laid his palm heavily against the side of her face, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Do you feel that?"
Elizabeth panicked, something painful digging in the bottom of her skull and spreading like a web throughout her brain. It hurt and, oh god, she couldn't breathe. Something was pressing against her chest, forcing her lungs still and her heart to clench.
She screamed.
She screamed until her voice gave out and all that came out of her gaping mouth was soundless air and gasps for breath that wouldn't come.
Everything was going wrong. No one was going to find her and she'd die at the hands of madmen.
"Yes," Doc whispered, his eyes shining with glee. "You feel it."
Elizabeth's eyes closed.
Alik dropped suddenly on the side of the road, his eyes squeezed shut as a burning pain stabbed at the back of his skull. He tried to breathe, but the second his mouth opened, the pain seemed to spread down his throat and into his lungs. His knees gave out a moment later and he dropped his head to the pavement. Everything hurt.
"S-something... is very wrong," he said between clenched teeth.
Derek dropped next to him and set his palm on Alik's shoulder. He jumped back a moment later with a hiss, shaking his hand in the air against the sting that had shot up through his fingers. "What is happening?" he whispered, staring wide eyed as the strongest demon he knew was kept on his knees.
Melphas stepped up to the two demons calmly, his eyes focused and his hands steady as he gripped Alik's shoulders and pulled his upper body off of the ground. He held Alik's face in his hands and stared into his eyes, barging into his thoughts and building a wall.
It was hard, as everything was flying through Alik's mind almost faster than Melphas could keep up with.
Almost.
A moment later, the wall built strong in Alik's mind. The demon found himself wondering just what he had panicked about in the first place.
"Do you know what we are here to do?" Melphas asked, his voice hard and his eyes still staring into Alik's.
Alik could only nod.
"Do you remember what house we are looking for?"
Another nod.
"Then let's go." Melphas stood quickly, his eyes following Alik's movements as the demon struggled to his feet. "We've covered most of the downtown area. It shouldn't be that long now."
Alik nodded and gave Derek a reassuring glance before taking a shaky step, needing to find Elizabeth soon.
Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews. I cherish every single one of them.
This is now beta-ed by the amazingly amazing, Joa! THANK YOU, BB! We're getting so close to the end!
Let me know what you think. I adore hearing from you all!